Now that the health community is in a state of reflection, how do we put the lessons learned into practice? As we step back to examine the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to think about how to raise the bar for our response to the next public health emergency. Now is the time to revisit health preparedness strategies and plans. And now is the time to review what the health community did that worked-and how we can do that again. Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics tells real-life stories about how spatial thinking became invaluable in both local and full-scale outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Needing to answer the question of "where" sat at the forefront of everyone's mind, and using a geographic information system (GIS) for real-time surveillance transformed possibly overwhelming data into location intelligence that provided agencies and civic leaders with valuable insights. Co-edited by Esri chief medical officer Dr. Este Geraghty, this book highlights best practices, key GIS capabilities, and lessons learned during the COVID-19 response that can help communities prepare for the next crisis. GIS has empowered: Organizations to use human mobility data to estimate the adherence to social distancing guidelines Communities to monitor their health care systems' capacity through spatially enabled surge tools Governments to use location-allocation methods to site new resources (i.e., testing sites and augmented care sites) in ways that account for at-risk and vulnerable populations Communities to use maps and spatial analysis to review case trends at local levels to support reopening of economies Organizations to think spatially as they consider "back-to-the-workplace" plans that account for physical distancing and employee safety needs Learning from COVID-19 also includes a "next steps" section that provides ideas, strategies, tools, and actions to help jump-start your own use of GIS, either as a citizen scientist or a health professional. A collection of online resources, including additional stories, videos, new ideas and concepts, and downloadable tools and content, complements this book. Now is the time to use science and data to make informed decisions for our future, and this book shows us how we can do it.

What makes a community resilient? How do we ensure its sustainable future? Resilience-the unique ability to positively adapt to changing physical and social environments-is essential for populations of all sizes and locales in today's world of unexpected changes and increasing instances of environmental change. Communities around the globe possess unique combinations of culture, skills, and abilities in context of unique built and natural environments. Identifying and mapping community strengths and resources facilitates effective planning for where and how to focus and manage their unique cultures and characteristics. Resilient Communities across Geographies is a collection of case studies examining the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to environmental and socioeconomic challenges for analysis, planning, and, ultimately, more resilient communities. Each chapter discusses a spatially driven approach to challenges in geography, social sciences, landscape architecture, urban planning, environmental studies, sociology, economics, migration, community development, meteorology, oceanography, and other fields. Examples explore both the natural and cultural contexts of climate adaptation in built environments and cultural impacts in a diversity of communities. These include the Martu people of Australia, First Nation youth in Canada, and cultural diversity of indigenous Los Angeles to California farmworkers facing exposure to agricultural chemicals in their communities. Each example applies powerful GIS tools and analysis to document, support, and assess resilience across these unique geographies while recognizing the value and strength which lies in the diversity of the people who live there. The stories shared within Resilient Communities across Geographies help readers develop an expanded sense of the power of spatial thinking, local knowledge, and engagement to address the difficult problems we collectively face in various locales. Edited by the authors of GIS Research Methods with a foreword by Esri Chief Medical Officer Este Geraghty.